AVGOROU VILLAGE

Avgorou is a big farming community of 4,300 residents. It is situated south-west of the occupied city of Famagusta and borders with the Green Line that separates the island into two.

The residents of the village mainly are farmers and are known for the growing of potatoes, vegetables and citrus fruits. A lot of other residents work in the tourist sector and other local businesses.

Being a village with very long history a lot of monuments can be found, from the time of the king of Salamina, Evagoras. Also a number of classical and old houses, with unique architectural designs can be found here.

Saint Peter and Paul Church

Apostolos Peter and Pauls Church is situated in the centre of Avgorou, and provides all Christian Orthodox services to worshippers.

The Church was built towards the end of the 19th century and was renovated in 1931, 1959 and 1999.

Its important to emphasize that the Greek-Cypriots belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, and they do their best to follow their religion.

Agios Kendeas Monastery

This monastery is built upon a small hillock overlooking the road. Most probably the domed church was built sometime during the 15th or 16th century. Agios Kendeas is considered to be one of the German saints who came to Cyprus to lead a monastic life in different areas of the island. It seems that Agios Kendeas first spent some time in Pafos, where there is a church dedicated to him. Later, he left Pafos and moved to an area within the jurisdiction of Avgorou. Today’s “holy water” could be the cave where the saint spent his last days on earth.

Cyherbia Herb Gardens and Maze

Come and get lost in the ONLY hedge maze in Cyprus!

Over 600 m of twisting paths in between tall hedges, take you to another dimension,
CAN YOU FIND YOUR WAY OUT?

2000 sqm of 'green' fun for all the family.

Designed for kids and adults alike, a great way to spend an afternoon, trying to solve the puzzles.

YOU WILL BE A-MAZED.

Potato harvest

Avgorou has long being famous for the production of high quality potatoes. The fertile red soil of the area is particularly helpful for the growth of potatoes. Potatoes are grown in two seasons. The spring which is the main crop is planted between December and February and harvested from April until early June.

EOKA Monument and Museum

The wish to honour the Avgorou dead fighters goes back to 1962 when the first actions to gather the necessary funds took place. More than twenty years afterwards, in March 1985, the EOKA 1955-59 Avgorou members’ decision to construct a memorial materialized.

The intention of the initiative was to remind the origins, symbolize the main principles of the EOKA 1955-59 struggle, and commemorate Modestos Panteli, the first EOKA fighter who died on April 1st 1955.

For that reason the area where the memorial is situated today was symbolically chosen, being the exact place of his death. The memorial honors the memory of all Avgorou and the nearby Liopetri village EOKA’s dead fighters and aspired to be the reference point for the whole of Cyprus during the annual commemorations on April 1st.

The funding of this extensive project was secured mainly by the EOKA 1955-59 members, and the Board for the Historical Memory of the EOKA 1955-59 Struggle (SIMAE). Other state and private entities also made contributions.

A procession path flanked with a row of cypress trees links the ancient Greek Corinthian style entrance with the Mycenaean-like tomb. The path opens up to an ancient Greek theater construction. The distance between the theater’s semicircular auditorium and the tomb is flanked with dark stone panels where the names of the dead appear.

Inside the tomb, 26 portraits in relief were made by the three sculptors. Because of the limited budget, black and white photographs of the deceased substituted part of the total of 108 portraits initially planned to cover the walls.

Following the ancient Greek tradition, where theaters were adjacent to temples and in particular to Dionysus temple in order to underline the origins and the higher purpose of the theater culture, at Avgorou village, the nearby chapel was erected to remind the close relation between religion and motherland in modern Cyprus.

The unveiling of the monument took place on October 18th 2002.

Ethnographic Museum Pierides Fountation

The community of Avgorou within its efforts to preserve, protect and promote the cultural heritage of the area, bought and renovated the Koutras’ House, a rare specimen of traditional architecture of the area, built in 1921.This impressive farmhouse, built of stone, is one of the few houses in the area with outer coating. The Avgorou Community Council bought all of the construction, as well as a part of the plot including the stockyard, the water reservoir, the wheel-well and the courtyard. With the co-operation of the Pierides Foundation the house has been renovated and is now functioning as the Avgorou – Pierides Foundation Folk Art Museum, aspiring to bring to the community an invaluable example of the Folk Art tradition of the area.

The Museum hosts the kind donations of Folk Art items from the personal collections of several of the Avgorou residents, as well as the important Folk Art collection of the Pierides Foundation. This includes amongst others rare 19th century wood-carved furniture, priceless traditional textiles and embroideries of the 18th – 19th century, costumes, silverware and pottery, a collection of nine paintings by the great Cypriot folk artist Michael Kassialos, as well as many other traditional utensils and tools. The collection – an invaluable tool for the studying of the different expressions of Cyprus Folk Art – and the family inheritance of the Pierides Foundation add up to the completed picture of a rich, urban household equipment of the last centuries. Moreover, the visitor of the museum has the opportunity to see the cultural and commercial relations of those years between Cyprus and the West, the East, and especially the relations of the island with the rest of the Greek islands.